Barcelona, anyone?

First of all... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I suppose it's about time I let yall know what's up with Barcelona, eh? :)

I got here last Friday and met my roommates - they're really neat! Our program took us on a bus tour of the city (but I forgot my camera, so no pictures yet... oops!) and it was a great way to start off the month here. We went on a bike tour of the city last night, too, so I've pretty much gotten to see the whole thing! Architecturally, Barcelona is incredible. Gaudi's masterpieces are all here, not to mention amazing designs by other people - it provides for a really cool-lookin city, and awesome things to see around every corner. Also, the city has changed a lot in my lifetime because SO much was done to get it ready for the Olympics here in 1992. Areas that were previously totally undesirable are now major real estate areas, and thanks to the cleaning up of the beaches, Barcelona is a beach town! Overall, the city is MUCH different and much nicer than it was 20 or 30 years ago.

We got our apartment on Sunday, and it is INCREDIBLE! It's really nice, with its hardwood floors, huge balcony, washing machine & dishwasher (!!!) etc. We like it! It's in a good location, too - we're about a 15 or 20 minute walk from Port Olympia & the beach in one direction and the big shopping/restaurant area in the other direction. I'm still trying to adjust to Barcelona being such a big city - I'm not used to living in anything bigger than Lenexa or College Station - it's weird. But I'm a whiz at the metro now which helps a lot, because you can get anywhere in the city pretty quickly. Yay for metro!

I suppose that's it for now. Spain has sales in the stores once per year, and it's from July 1st to August 31st, so I plan to take advantage of that later on today, and maybe hit up the beach for a bit. You're welcome to join me! :)